What fits, late to early front end parts to swap?

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halfafish

halfafish

Damn those rabbits, and their holes!
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I have a 64 Valiant that is going to get a complete go-through. One of my parts cars is a 74 Dart, so I was going to swap the disc brake setup from the 74 over to the 64. I am of the understanding these will fit with no issues, correct?

The next question is, the LCA's on the 74 have the tabs for a sway bar, and I do have the 74 sway bar also. Is there a way to get the 74 sway bar to work on the 64? I'm aware the late bar goes through the K frame while an early one does not. Also, I think the early A is several inches more narrow than the late A. If the late sway bar won't fit, is there a workaround to use the tabs on the late LCA's with a different bar, or ??

Just trying to figure out the options before I start taking things apart.
 
@hemi71x and @Jim Lusk are probably your two best bets on this advice. I can ramble on about it, but I don't want to get anything wrong. Maybe one or both of them fine fellers will chime in.
 
halfafish said:
I have a 64 Valiant that is going to get a complete go-through. One of my parts cars is a 74 Dart, so I was going to swap the disc brake setup from the 74 over to the 64. I am of the understanding these will fit with no issues, correct?

The next question is, the LCA's on the 74 have the tabs for a sway bar, and I do have the 74 sway bar also. Is there a way to get the 74 sway bar to work on the 64? I'm aware the late bar goes through the K frame while an early one does not. Also, I think the early A is several inches more narrow than the late A. If the late sway bar won't fit, is there a workaround to use the tabs on the late LCA's with a different bar, or ??

Just trying to figure out the options before I start taking things apart.
Click to expand...
Everything control arms out fits fine and will work. Use the '74 proportioning valve and a dual master cylinder from the same.

As for the sway bar. The '74 control arm tabs will not work with the '74 sway bar, BUT I have held a '74 bar up to an early A and the width appears to be ok IF you fab up some k-frame brackets and put sway bar tabs where they should be for that width bar.
 
Hmmm. Early A’s are not my specialty for sure.

Control arms and out will work fine. K frames don’t interchange, and I’m not sure that you’d be able to use either sway bar. The ‘74 LCA tabs will be too close together for the ‘64 bar, and with the narrower track I’m not sure the ‘74 bar would work either.

You might ask @DionR, I think he narrowed a later K for use on an early A
 
i would sell/trade the tabbed LCA's for some plain jane ones. then adapt the 73 bar as jim suggested-- the mounts shouldn't be that big of a deal and fabbing up some tabs wouldn't be the worst thing. this supposes that you have some room/tools for the fab and a little welding skill.

the easier direction would be to get the naked LCA's and an aftermarket bar that supplies the mounts and LCA tabs. hellwig and addco are two that come to mind right off hand. these mount to the lower shock bolt and don't require any fab work.
 
I did indeed narrow a later slant 6 k-frame to use in an early A body, and then moved the motor mounts because the early A body had the k-frame in a different location front to back. Even still have the stupid k-frame.

When I built it, I put an aftermarket sway bar in it and it sure looked like a win. My plan was to use naked LCA’s and fab my own mounts. I think the better plan now would be to find some 90 degree ball joint style sway bar links and bolt them through the side of the LCA.
 
Jim Lusk said:
Everything control arms out fits fine and will work. Use the '74 proportioning valve and a dual master cylinder from the same.

As for the sway bar. The '74 control arm tabs will not work with the '74 sway bar, BUT I have held a '74 bar up to an early A and the width appears to be ok IF you fab up some k-frame brackets and put sway bar tabs where they should be for that width bar.
Click to expand...
Regarding the sway bar, first off, you'd have to have some good fabrication skills to find a way to support the bar and mount it since the 73-76 sway bars go through the K members in stock form. IF you could build mounts for it, another issue exists....The early A body frame rails are closer together than the 67-76 models. With that in mind, that means that the '74 sway bar ends will be an inch too wide on each side if you can build the mounts to secure it. You'd be better off buying an Addco front bar and use their 90 degree brackets that attach to the shock bolt.
The lower control arms with the sway bar brackets are desirable and would sell quickly.
 
Kern Dog said:
Regarding the sway bar, first off, you'd have to have some good fabrication skills to find a way to support the bar and mount it since the 73-76 sway bars go through the K members in stock form. IF you could build mounts for it, another issue exists....The early A body frame rails are closer together than the 67-76 models. With that in mind, that means that the '74 sway bar ends will be an inch too wide on each side if you can build the mounts to secure it. You'd be better off buying an Addco front bar and use their 90 degree brackets that attach to the shock bolt.
The lower control arms with the sway bar brackets are desirable and would sell quickly.
Click to expand...

the 73~76 bar pickups are at about the middle of the arm, so i don't think width would be an issue, it would just put that end link pick up further out like on the 67~72. although the bar does pass thru the K it's relatively straight-ish, so i think with some creative shimming and flat stock you could probably reuse the stock mounts. basically, all you would need to do is fab up some tabs.

i guess it comes down to spending 300-ish bucks or an afternoon with a 12 pack and some fab work.
 
Kern Dog said:
You'd be better off buying an Addco front bar and use their 90 degree brackets that attach to the shock bolt.
The lower control arms with the sway bar brackets are desirable and would sell quickly.
Click to expand...
Mopar Action did a write-up on this a couple issues ago.
IIRC, Ehrenberg used later style right angle end links from a Ford pickup. I think he shortened the actual links and they ended up pretty short. Not much more than drilling a hole in the front LCA with a nut on the inside.
 
I narrowed my k-frame by 1.5" and it bolted in fine. So the difference is only 3/4" per side.

I tried to find pictures of the sway bar in the modified k-frame and I don't seem to have any. Based on some of the links I put in the for sales ad I did a bunch of years ago, it seems I had the links on it even. Annoyed I never took pictures.

@halfafish you are welcome to this modified k-frame if you want it.
 
That's an offer certainly worth pursuing. PM on the way, and thanks!
 
halfafish said:
I have a 64 Valiant that is going to get a complete go-through. One of my parts cars is a 74 Dart, so I was going to swap the disc brake setup from the 74 over to the 64. I am of the understanding these will fit with no issues, correct?

The next question is, the LCA's on the 74 have the tabs for a sway bar, and I do have the 74 sway bar also. Is there a way to get the 74 sway bar to work on the 64? I'm aware the late bar goes through the K frame while an early one does not. Also, I think the early A is several inches more narrow than the late A. If the late sway bar won't fit, is there a workaround to use the tabs on the late LCA's with a different bar, or ??

Just trying to figure out the options before I start taking things apart.
Click to expand...
Use the '74 spindles-out and the upper control arms. Re-use your lower control arms and just get a Helwig sway bar assembly. Check with them to see if you need to swap sides on the spindles to avoid interference with the calipers. Sell the '74 lower control arms and factory sway bar to help pay for the Helwig sway bar.
 
cudamark said:
Use the '74 spindles-out and the upper control arms. Re-use your lower control arms and just get a Helwig sway bar assembly. Check with them to see if you need to swap sides on the spindles to avoid interference with the calipers. Sell the '74 lower control arms and factory sway bar to help pay for the Helwig sway ba
Click to expand...

Thanks. That's pretty much the direction I decided to go.
 
I did this swap a long time ago. I used '75 Dart parts for my '65 Dart. Everything just bolts on. I even used the sway bar. You just need to notch the K member where the bar runs across it and then weld a plate into the notch.

Not hard, just some assembly required.
 
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